Summary
This document revises an earlier proposed airworthiness directive (AD), applicable to certain Airbus Model A320 series airplanes, that would have required repetitive inspections to detect wear of the inboard flap trunnions; modification or replacement, if necessary; and eventual modification of the trunnions, which would terminate the repetitive inspections. That proposal was prompted by reports of wear damage found on the inboard flap drive trunnions that was caused by chafing of the Teflon rollers of the chain that actuates the sliding panel of the fairing. This new action revises the proposed AD by adding new repetitive inspections to detect wear or debonding of the protective half-shells, and corrective actions, if necessary; and by removing the modification requirement. This action also would expand the applicability of the existing AD to include additional airplanes. The actions specified by this proposed AD are intended to detect and correct chafing and resultant wear damage on the inboard flap drive trunnions or on the protective half-shells, which could result in failure of the trunnion primary load path; this would adversely affect the fatigue life of the secondary load path and could lead to loss of the flap.